Side-step for next fall

Moving in to the second week of our first summer session, the juvenile "new book" shelf is empty and awaits titles ordered via my final spending spree. Though a temporary sad sight, it is also fraught with hope since new books are coming soon. I liberated a few picture books that caught my attention to use for next fall's Mock Caldecott session. I suffered a momentary pang of guilt checking these out through September, but it's better than hoarding them in my office while patrons search the stacks in vane.

Two caught my attention immediately; Chalk is an eye-catching wordless picture book and Palazzo Inverso is an extremely clever offering that reads beginning to end and back again. Here are the five titles I pulled:

• Chalk, Bill Thomson
• Animal Crackers Fly the Coop, Kevin O'Malley
• LMNO Peas, Keith Baker
• Little Cloud and Lady Wind, Sean Qualls (illustrator)
• Palazzo Inverso, D.B. Johnson

Getting a jump on spring

The end of this semester was brutal; filled with meeting after meeting after meeting, my relief last Friday at 5:00 pm was palpable. A week makes all the difference. Today finals are over, grades submitted, and students are gleefully on their way home for holiday break. Right before closing Wednesday evening, I asked my student worker to pull a list of recently acquired picture books in preparation for a spring Mock Caldecott session.

• Looking Like Me
• We Troubled the Waters
• Sweethearts of Rhythm
• Cool Cat
• The Longest Night
• John Brown: His Fight For Freedom
  
• Let There Be Peace on Earth
• The Goblin and the Empty Chair

On an aside, check out this Amazon video of Mem Fox reading The Goblin and the Empty Chair.

I have four journals to peruse tomorrow for juvenile books, two Booklist (11/15 & 12/1) and two School Library Journal (Nov. & Dec.) issues. If I submit orders tomorrow, I should have a few more choices available for the spring session.

A head start on spring

While finishing my lunch, a not especially nutritional chili-dog, I decided to start compiling my list of titles for the spring Mock Caldecott session. Recent library budgetary issues have narrowed the selection field somewhat (yes, less money = fewer books) so I have been tagging picture book possibilities fresh out of the box and still on the cart in technical services. It's an interesting group with old, new, and personal favorites:

• Too Many Toys
  Illustrator, David Shannon
• Chee-Lin: A Giraffe’s Journey
  Illustrator, James Rumford
• Abe Lincoln Crosses A Creek
  Illustrator, John Hendrix
• The Rain Stomper
  Illustrator, Eric Velasquez
• Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation
  Illustrator, Brian Pinkney
• Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie
  Illustrator, Chris Raschka
• Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken
  Illustrator, Harry Bliss
• Snow
  Illustrator, Lauren Stringer
• Awful Ogre Running Wild
  Illustrator, Paul O. Zelinsky
• There’s a Wolf at the Door
  Illustrator, R.W. Alley
• Peter and the Wolf
  Illustrator, Chris Raschka
• Twelve Terrible Things
  Illustrator, Marty Kelley
• Spuds
  Illustrator, Wendy Watson
• Rapunzel
  Illustrator, Rachel Isadora
• The Little Yellow Leaf
  Illustrator, Carin Berger
• The 3 Bears and Goldilocks
  Illustrator, Heather H. Solomon

The list does reflect collection efforts to increase folk tale titles, but there are a few interesting selections such as a picture book written by Karen Hesse and the mixed media illustrations done by Carin Berger (I'm waiting for a second look). I currently have sixteen titles and will undoubtedly need more; I like to have one book per student so everyone has something to look at during the session. With the December issue of Booklist awaiting my perusal, that should not be much of a problem.

Time to finish my mandarin oranges and get back to work.

Panel preparations

Instead of posting about the throngs of shiny, happy, people in the resource center today creating bulletin boards, laminating, color printing, and making a joyful noise, something that would be fulfilling but self-indulgent, I decided to share the Mock Caldecott selections for the fall 08 panel. It is always fun to select books for this session. My goals are to not only choose books with different styles of illustrations as well as varied artistic mediums, but also to make sure they meet Caldecott criteria and are recently purchased juvenile titles that have yet to circulate. This group of picture books includes fiction and non-fiction titles; the selection has award winning illustrators and artists that are new ... at least new to me.

Mock Caldecott Book List:
Alphabetical by author last name & illustrator

Billingsley, Franny & Karas, G. Brian [illus]
Big Bad Bunny

Cyrus, Kurt
Tadpole Rex

Diaz, David
De Colores = Bright with Colors

Field, Eugene W. & Potter, Giselle [illus]
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod

Fleming, Denise
Buster Goes to Cowboy Camp

Garland, Michael
Americana Adventure

Giovanni, Nikki & Raschka, Chris [illus]
The Grasshopper's Song: An Aesop's Fable Revisited

Haseley, Dennis & Young, Ed [illus]
Twenty Heartbeats

Jackson, Alison & Pedersen, Janet [illus]
Thea's Tree

Lehman, Barbara
Trainstop

Lyon, George Ella & Gammell, Stephen [illus]
My Friend, the Starfinder

Parker, Robert Andrew
Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum

Shea, Bob & Smith, Lane [illus]
Big Plans

Shulevitz, Uri
How I Learned Geography

Wells, Rosemary
Otto Runs for President

Winter, Jonah & Widener, Terry [illus]
Steel Town

Naturally the list is peppered with a few personal favorites, that is only to be expected since I have autonomy over the selection! One title that caught my attention quickly was Trainstop. A second title I enjoyed was Big Plans. The best part is listening to the students discuss and evaluate their selections, they always find something intriguing.

Procrastinating with purpose

I have a deadline of December 10th for editing my journal article. However, my problem remains having sufficient brainpower to make sure said edits are better than the original submitted work; something I have serious doubts about during this time of year.

Quality time is at a premium during the next two days. As of this morning, 57 of 150 students (38%)were finished with their portfolio projects, leaving a significant number to troupe their way through the resource center before six o'clock Friday afternoon. I estimate checking multiple assignments for twenty plus students today and know at least ten finished (45%). I have faith we will have close to a 90% completion rate and the remainder will take the course during another term. But during this time the pace is frantic and my brain is mush. I am less than brilliant, bordering on embarrassing myself. With that in mind, I am currently procrastinating with purpose. Enter the books added to the new book shelf yesterday afternoon.

I will accomplish things needed at the beginning of spring term. This is critical since I will be in Philadelphia at the midwinter meetings during the first two days of classes for spring 2008. Today I started pulling books and compiling a list of juvenile picture book titles for the spring semester Mock Caldecott panel. My current list/handout features thirteen books and I am hoping to add three or four additional titles from recently ordered picture books due to arrive in the next couple of weeks.

Here are the thirteen books I selected, list even includes non-fiction titles:

• Mars Needs Moms!, by Berkeley Breathed
• When Dinosaurs Came with Everything, illustrated by David Small
• The Boy Who Painted Dragons, by Demi
• Jazz on a Saturday Night, illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon
• Henry, the Dog with No Tail, illustrated by Jules Feiffer
• How to Catch a Fish, illustrated by Peter Sylvada
• Scribble, by Deborah Freedman
• Four Legs Bad, Two Legs Good!, by D.B. Johnson
• At Gleason's Gym, by Ted Lewin
• The Crow: A Not So Scary Story, by Alison Paul
• The Lemonade Club, by Patricia Polacco
• Velma Gratch & The Way Cool Butterfly, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes
• Cowboy and Octopus, illustrated by Lane Smith

Recent winners of the Caldecott award have been an eclectic group showcasing different artists and styles:

• Flotsam (part of last years spring mock Caldecott)
• The Hello Goodbye Window
• Kitten's First Full Moon
• The Man Who Walked Between the Towers
• My Friend Rabbit
• The Three Pigs (my personal favorite)

With this in mind, I selected a mix of new and well-known illustrators including previous award winners (Dillon's, Small, Demi, Lewin, Polacco, Hawkes), artists known for work in different media's (Breathed, Feiffer), a personal favorite (Smith), and an illustrator new to the children's book market (Paul). The next step was to find books featuring different mediums used to present the illustrations. The following information was garnered from individual books (some did not specify):

• Demi - "Paint and ink with Chinese silk brocade"
• Feiffer - "Charcoal pencil and watercolor"
• Freedman - "Pencil with watercolors, magic markers, and digital coloring"
• Johnson - "Hand lettered text and mixed media illustrations"
• Breathed - "Virtual acrylics and watercolor on 100% rag archival virtual illustration board"
• Small - "Watercolor and ink"
• Paul - "Collages of hand-dyed cut out and torn paper"
• Polacco - "Pencils and markers"

Lastly, even though this post is rife with lists I would be remiss not to include links to Caldecott medal information:

• 2008 Caldecott Committee
• Association for Library Services to Children - ALSC
• The Caldecott Medal
• About the Caldecott Medal
• Caldecott terms and criteria
• Caldecott winners 1938-present
• Caldecott medal and honor winners 1938 - present

Time will tell if I have made any pertinent selections; regardless, it is a class session the students enjoy and it gets them into the library again. Tomorrow is another busy day. In addition to the continuing mayhem in the resource center, it is the library open house.

On another note, I did get a chance to start reading Spanking Shakespeare today at lunch.


Tags: Mock Caldecott, Juvenile collection, Picture books, Picture book illustrators

Mock Caldecott Panel

Today’s Mock Caldecott panel consisted of eighteen pre-service teachers enrolled in a junior block literature class studying children’s books, particularly picture books and picture book art. There were enough books on each table to facilitate one book per student and plenty of time given for discussion amongst individual groups. Handouts accompanying the books included Caldecott medal criteria from ALSC, the Association of Library Services to Children, a listing of each book being considered detailing a webliography of illustrator sites, and a library pathfinder of previous Caldecott winners. Additionally, every book presented met basic criteria of being published in 2007 and having an illustrator who are residents of the United States.

The class arrived in the library mid-morning and were seated at tables in four groups, two groups of four and two groups of five, charged with the task of selecting one of the books on their table as their choice for best picture book. Eighteen titles (see Mock Caldecott early choices and Mock Caldecott part 2), each published in 2007, were considered as possible contenders for the award. The original field was narrowed to five; one selected the winner with others awarded honor distinction.

Selected by the panel were:

Catching the Moon - Top vote
Stick & How Many Mice - Tied for second

Discussions concerning individual selections were increasingly in-depth; students were very involved with the type of medium used, if there were any computer-generated elements within the illustration, and the various textures created by use of multiple mediums within the book. A short synopsis of comments regarding each title follows:

• Catching the Moon - Illustrated by Chris Sheban
  Illustrations were captivating; use of the moon as a character within the book was charming; facial features of the fisherwoman and the moon were revealing and emotional; the moon "glowed" within each illustration, even his footsteps when leaving the fisherwoman's house glowed; the fantasy elements during the night time visits were especially moving; and most thought even though the story may have been less than steller, the illustrations moved worked beautifully within the confines of the tale.



• Stick - Illustrated by Steven Breen
  This almost wordless picture book followed somewhat of a graphic novel, comic book format; humor was wonderfully depicted throughout; sense of wonder little "Stick" had throughout his adventure was apparant; details such as seeing reflections of Stick's lunch in his eyes and the characters he meets along the way were astonishing; the illustrator did not "miss a step" when adding to each pane as the story progressed; colors were great; and the ending "glowed."



• How Many Mice - Illustrated by Michael Garland
  Illustrations had great depth; different textures were detailed within various pages, specifically the corn and the fish; choice and use of color was astonishing; and each individual mouse had it's own personality. Additionally, as pre-service teachers the panel was impressed with math elements woven into the story making it both visually appealing and useful for the classroom.
  
  

This is the first time in the five years I have been facilitating a Mock Caldecott discussion that the student panel selected books that were personal favorites of mine. I also found it interesting that they did not choose books by some of the more well-known illustrators such as David Diaz, Betsy Lewin, Jerry Pinkney, E.B. Lewis, or Jan Spivey-Gilchrist(I was disappointed hers did not make the cut). To me this means they were looking at the project as a whole, as opposed to making safe selections. Time will tell if any of our books are even contenders.

Tags: Mock Caldecott Panel, Juvenile fiction, Juvenile non-fiction, Picture books

Mock Caldecott, part two

This afternoon I had opportunity to finish out my Mock Caldecott choices; one whole week (give or take) before the planned session. In addition to the previously selected titles posted in Mock Caldecott ... early choices, here is a quick look at the remainder of the list, book and illustrator:

• Ain’t Nobody a Stranger to Me, Jerry Pinkney
• Anne Hutchinson’s Way, Michael Dooling
• The Bravest Knight, Mercer Mayer
• Catching the Moon, Chris Sheban
• Heat Wave, Betsy Lewin
• How Many Mice, Michael Garland
• The Liberty Bell, Matthew Skeens
• My Life as a Chicken, Michael Slack
• Pocahontas: Princess of the New World, David Diaz
• Stick, Steve Breen
• The Top Job, Robert Neubecker

Two of these titles caught my interest. The first, Catching the Moon, is a charming tale of a Fisherwoman who is trying to stop high tide from completely eroding neighborhood shacks and piers. She and her mouse have concocted an ingenious plan to catch the Man in the Moon; "With my trusty mouse and his nose for cheese, I'm sure to hook the Man in the Moon. And once I do, I won't throw him back until he's agreed to keep high tide away!" The Fisherwoman catches the attention of the Moon, a mysterious monthly guest in her shack, who resolves her problem with an ingenious gift of moonbeam paint. Sheban's art work, bold watercolor paints and Prismacolor pencils, is suitably framed and placed along side the text of the book. Use of light, in the form of Moonbeams, is a purveying theme. From the grimacing mouse struggling to pull in a teakettle from the sea, to the thoughtful Moon in his many disguises, each illustration is delightfully complete.

Stick, according to the cover, is the debut picture book of "Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Steve Breen." In this nearly wordless picture book, Breen chronicles the adventures of a young frog named Stick who likes to do things "all by himself." One day his overzealous lunch selection, a large mosquito, results in a wild ride through towns and cities, by car and by plane, and even by seagull, before finding his way back home. From ground level to a birds-eye view, the graphic illustrations cleverly portray Stick's journey. Breen's watercolor artwork is presented in comic book format, as well as full double-paged spreads that move the story along at a fast pace. Readers will be pleased at the end papers rendering of Stick's entire journey in map format.

The Mock Caldecott session is tentatively scheduled for September. Time will tell what title is the favored by the students this year.


Tags: Mock Caldecott, Juvenile literature, Picture books, Catching the Moon, Chris Sheban, Stick, Steve Breen

Mock Caldecott ... early choices

I am currently collecting books, and by "collect" I mean check out to me for the next three months, for September's Mock Caldecott session. I endeavor to find books not only new to our collection and possibly the participating students, but also visually appealing and meeting Caldecott medal standards. Picking from new books is slim right now with one fiscal year ending and another yet to begin, although luckily there are a few titles filtering into the library that were ordered in late April and May. At this point I have seven contenders, almost half way to the fifteen plus necessary; five have been in captivity for several weeks and two I took from the new book cart this afternoon.

The first five and their illustrators (in no particular order) are:

• The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County, Shelley Jackson
• Lucky Jake, Wade Zaharaes
• Wolf's Coming, Joe Kulka
• Sweet Land of Liberty, Leonard Jenkins
• Lily Brown's Paintings, E.B. Lewis

Today's jewels are:

• When I met the Wolf Girls, August Hall
• My America, Ashley Bryan and Jan Spivey Gilchrist
  

My America is a beautiful piece of artistic poetry. Bryan and Gilchrist's illustrations perfectly compliment the book's poetry and each other in a way that should not be possible given the distinctly different style of each artist; case in point, bright colored water creatures flow into two youngsters enjoying a swim in the ocean and a stunning watercolor rendering of American children is enhanced by people dressed in traditional garb on the next page. This book begs to be read and enjoyed a second and third time.

When I Met the Wolf Girls, illustrated by August Hall, is a fictional account of two young girls discovered by missionaries in the 1920's who had been raised by wolves. Hall's art is a perfect accompaniment to this story as it ranges from lushly drawn forest and animals (the double page jungle spread towards the end is a visual treat) to the townspeople missionaries having a more somber amber toned palette. This book has an intriguing textural feel; it reminded me in some ways of a plastic placemat that the technical services assistant did not cover so as not to inhibit student's enjoyment of holding the book as well as reading it.

Time will tell if the students enjoy any of these selections, or the other eight or ten I have yet to select. They always find something unique in each of the books we discuss when making their choices.

Tags: Mock Caldecott, Picture books, Picture book art, August Hall, Ashley Bryan, Jan Spivey Gilchrist, My America, When I Met the Wolf Girls